SubaruRichie

You should check out the ball joints too. They wear out and start making a little clunking noise themselves. The 89 wagon I got from you has shot ball joints and you can hear and feel them slopping around. I would have started checking something else. I just happened to notice their condition when I had the car up on jack stands. I had the same problem on my 88 XT. Had to replace both of them. With the car up on stands try to pull out on the wheel from the bottom of the tire. If the ball joint is bad you will feel the excessive play in the ball joint. The wheel will feel like it is almost flopping around in your hand. Fairly easy to replace too. Good luck Keith.

Thank you! I think I will start tearing my donor 87 GL 10 turbo wagon apart tomorrow.

Wow! Now that I have really taken a good look at the work Garner did on his gen 1 Brat I am really impressed. Lots of work but I think it would be worth it. Still lookinbg to see if anybody has a answer to my rear disc brake conversion question. Come on, Somebody has got to know if it can be done on a gen 1 Brat or not!

I'm glad to see it can be done! I am in no major hurry. I just need to strip the wagon of everything I will need to make this work. Then I will just have to find a transmission for this. I sure am not going to use the burnt up auto that is in the GL 10 wagon.Again, will the disc brakes off the back of the GL 10 wagon fit on to the gen1 Brat?

I have a 78 Brat that I was thinking of trying to put a EA82T from a 87 GL10 Turbo wagon. Is it possible? If so what all would I need to take off the wagon to make the change. Also, will the disk brakes fit on the back? I know they will fit on a gen two brat but will they fit on a gen 1 Brat? Any help would be appeciated.

Well that explains why it possibly smells inside my 78 Brat. Especially after I filled it up!

If you do buy a welder buy a Miller. Great welders. I use them everday at my work. Had some experience with lincon welders. Not near as good as a miller.

Im sure going to try to get it back on the road. Just need to pick up some fresh parts first. Think I might try to fix the 87 too. Found a tranny for it on ebay cheap. It drives but the tranny is real messed up. It dumps tranny fluid all over when you drive it and it has some strange noises going on. Also, you have to manually shift the auto tranny to make it shift. Besides that and being really dirty it seems like a pretty good car. I even got the air suspension to work today, all 4! I definetly have my hands full now with 6 cars at home. Looks like a car lot!

Thanks for the info! Now it's off to the junkyard to find the parts I need for a suspension change.

Yep, That's right I picked up my 2nd turbo wagon today. Got Spideyz's 89 yesterday and today picked up a 87. Had not ran since 97. Guy said it had a bad tranny. Again, just like yesterday I threw a good battery in it and it fired up on the first try. I tried to put it in gear and nothing. So I checked the tranny fluid just out of curiosity. Empty! So I put a quart of fluid in and it went into gear. I drove it down the street and up into the driveway. It seems to run pretty good. It does have a problem with the air suspension. The compressor comes on and you can hear air leaking from somewhere. I checked all around the compressor and there really was not much air seeping out of the fittings. But the suspension remained flat. Can I do a strut conversion on this 87. I know it's done all the time in XT-6's. Any help would be appeciated.

Ok, I just got spidey's, I mean my GL 10 turbo wagon home. I threw a battery in it and sure enough it started right up. I drove it right off the trailer and into my driveway and began to troubleshoot the car. Checked the radiator. Empty. I put some water in it and started it up again. I instantly found the problem, yep you guessed it, Blown head gasket. Water was running out the right side of the engine. It was easy to see the problem when I looked under the car. Heck, it looks like the gasket is just about gone on the bottom where I could see it. So I am planning to fix it. Here is what I am planning to replace: Timing belts, crank and cam seals, water pump and gasket, oil pump and seal and, the thermostat and gasket. I figure while I have the radiator out I should have have it gone over since it will be out any way. Is there anything I missed that I may need to check or replace while I am in there? Let me know if I missed anything else. Thanks.

Could somebody please move this thread to the older generation of subarus. I made a mistake as to where I put this one.

Ok, just got spideyz's GL 10 turbo wagon home. Threw a battery in it and sure enough it fired up. Drove it off the trailer into the driveway and began troubleshooting the car. Checked the radiator. Empty. Put some water in it and started it up. I instantly found the problem, yep you guessed it, blown head gasket. Water was just running out the right side of the engine. It was quite easy to see the problem when I looked under the car. Heck, it looks like the gasket is just about gone on the bottom where I could see. So I am planning to fix it. Tell me if I miss anything to replace. Here is what I am thinking so far. Timing belts, crank and cam seals, water pump and gasket, oil pump and seal and, the thermostat and gasket. Also, I figure I should have the radiator gone over since I will have it out any way. Let me know if I have missed anything or if I should do anything else while I am in there. Thanks.

Can this conversion be done on a gen 1 brat too?

Could the rear disc brakes come off a GL-10 turbo wagon AWD?